Are You a Man of Mystery? Maybe Not Thanks to These Technologies

Agent 007 aka James Bond, with his first-class sojourns and taste for exotic beauties, remains our perennial hero when it comes to masculine role models. I mean, who wouldn’t want the Double-O status? But what is a spy without any secrets, right? Whether you are a secret agent or just a bit paranoid, you probably don’t like anybody snooping around your stuff. If you thought your secrets were safe, think again. So, pour the champagne and let’s get this list started.

Drones

Drones are deadly. They’re built to kill, and don’t take any prisoners (or survivors), but it’s all fine and dandy here, right? Because them drones are busing taking out bad guys in Pakistan… well, not quite. Although the US government carries out drone flights in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, recently the US government revealed that they were also using drones to spy on American citizens, but with intentions other than what you might think. While the details have only been partially released, what we do know now is that drones have been used to spy as part of investigations in the past, which means that the laws may need to be revised.

Voice Recognition Software

The only person that could be just as cool (if not cooler) than Bond is of course, Batman (okay, batman’s cooler!). Few would deny that Batman lives in a more realistic world as compared to the other DC superheroes, even with his cool sci-fi closet that’s full of awesome ‘science-fictiony’ tech. For instance, in The Dark Knight, Batman uses voice recognition software to turn all the cell phones in Gotham City to sonar. While that was a bit of a stretch, there’s been a Russian company that has been working in the US by the name of SpeechPro that has developed a voice recognition software that contains millions of voices, and can match a person’s voice by pulling it out of your phone in a matter of seconds.

The technology is already in use in Mexico and the US government is currently in talks with the company to use the software in the US. What’s interesting is that they also mentioned that they wouldn’t be making any further comments on the release or use of this technology on American soil.

Loyalty Programs

Supermarkets are famous for using customer loyalty programs to monitor the purchasing habits of their customers. The collection and storage of data is then used to fight obesity, or so they’d want you to believe. In reality, these supermarkets (and even online stores) use that data to learn your buying habits so that they can bombard you with a plethora of products you don’t even need whenever you visit their online or offline stores.

Social Media

If you’re on social media platforms (and you probably are!) just because you clicked the ‘super-duper private’ option in the privacy settings does not mean you’re safe, (though it works to keep the prying boss out). What you’d like to know is that even with social media services promising to sacrifice their first-borns for your privacy, US law enforcement agencies have the right to tap into your social media posts (yes, even the private ones) since they are classed as ‘External Communications’ which does not require a warrant.